Kerala men’s and Chhattisgarh women’s team lift National Inclusion Cup

Kerala men’s and Chhattisgarh women’s team lift National Inclusion Cup

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Slum Soccer

The Kerala men’s team and the Chhattisgarh Women’s team today emerged victorious as champions of the 2018 National Inclusion Cup in Mumbai. Kerala beat Vidarbha 8-3, while Chhattisgarh took the top honours in a closely fought encounter beating Uttarakhand edging out the latter by a score of 5-3.

Kerala, who entered the finals beating West Bengal on Thursday, rode on four goals from Praveen, together with Manikandan and Vishnu shooting eight past the Vidarbha sidebeating favourites Mumbai. The Women’s final though was a closely fought contest where Chhattisgarh prevailed over Uttarakhand 5-3, thanks to Pranshu’shat-trick.

“While there are winners emerging from every tournament, for us all participants coming from across the country, including from Nepal, were the real highlights of The National Inclusion Cup. This football tournament was played in the true spirit of participation and inclusiveness and that’s what defines our success,” said Dr. Vijay Barse, Founder, Slum Soccer.

Smriti K Singh, CHRO, Sony Pictures Networks India, said, “I am moved by the traction this movement is seeing in impacting more of India’s youth and putting them on a path of change and development via football. We are happy to support this journey and hope for a better India through such initiatives”

Kedar Teny, Sr. VP Marketing & Promotions - Sports, Sony Pictures Networks India said, “Ironic as it may sound, while there will be a men's team and a women's team that will represent India in the World Cup for the homeless at the end of this National Inclusion Cup, the home that slum soccer has provided to these children with little or no hope is amazing and incredible. It’s providing them hope, exposure, love, an opportunity to develop into leaders and most importantly an opportunity to develop into better human beings. It's the kind of Social engineering that India needs. This is a great example of small actions that make a big difference.”

Since its inception in 2002, The National Inclusion Cup has taken place across various cities in India. From 2010 onwards, the organisers added the women’s category to the event. The first tournament was held in Nagpur with 16 states participating. Till date the National Inclusion Cup has engaged 4580 underprivileged youth, while 180 men and women from underprivileged backgrounds have represented India at Homeless World Cup since 2007.

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